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Priscagama
''Priscagama'' (meaning "earliest '' Agama''" in Latin) is an extinct genus of iguanian lizard from the Late Cretaceous of Mongolia and China. It belongs to an extinct family of iguanians called Priscagamidae (or subfamily Priscagaminae). Several incomplete skulls have been found in the Barun Goyot and Djadochta formations, and were originally referred to the genus ''Mimeosaurus''; the type species ''Priscagama gobiensis'' was named in 1984 when it was recognized that these skulls belonged to a distinct species. ''Priscagama'' differs from most other priscagamids in having a more elongate, lightly built skull. It is very similar in appearance to another priscagamid called ''Pleurodontagama ''Pleurodontagama'' is an extinct genus of iguanian lizard from the Late Cretaceous of Mongolia. The type species, ''Pleurodontagama aenigmatodes'', was named in 1984 on the basis of a mostly complete skull and isolated lower jaw from a fossil lo ...'', as the two can only be distinguished by ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Priscagamidae
Priscagamidae is an extinct family of iguanian lizards known from the Late Cretaceous of Mongolia and China and the Eocene of India, spanning a range from 75 to 54 million years ago. It includes the genera ''Heterodontagama'', ''Mimeosaurus'', ''Phrynosomimus'', ''Priscagama'', and possibly ''Pleurodontagama''. The first fossils of priscagamids were found in the Djadochta and Khermeen Tsav formations of Mongolia. More recently they have been found in the Cambay Formation in India, leading to the naming of ''Heterodontagama'' in 2013. Priscagamidae was originally described as a subfamily of Agamidae called Priscagaminae in 1984, but it was reclassified as a distinct family in 1989. Most phylogenetic analyses (analyses of evolutionary relationships) still find a close relationship between Priscagamidae and Agamidae (both have been grouped under a clade called Chamaeleontiformes), although a 2015 study found it to be basal to all other iguanian clades, warranting its removal from ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Iguania
Iguania is an infraorder of squamate reptiles that includes iguanas, chameleons, agamids, and New World lizards like anoles and phrynosomatids. Using morphological features as a guide to evolutionary relationships, the Iguania are believed to form the sister group to the remainder of the Squamata, which comprise nearly 11,000 named species, roughly 2000 of which are iguanians. However, molecular information has placed Iguania well within the Squamata as sister taxa to the Anguimorpha and closely related to snakes. The order has been under debate and revisions after being classified by Charles Lewis Camp in 1923 due to difficulties finding adequate synapomorphic morphological characteristics. Most Iguanias are arboreal but there are several terrestrial groups. They usually have primitive fleshy, non-prehensile tongues, although the tongue is highly modified in chameleons. The group has a fossil record that extends back to the Early Jurassic (the oldest known member is '' B ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Djadochta Formation
The Djadochta Formation (sometimes transcribed and also known as Djadokhta, Djadokata, or Dzhadokhtskaya) is a highly fossiliferous geological formation situated in Central Asia, Gobi Desert, dating from the Late Cretaceous period, about 75 million to 71 million years ago. The type locality is the Bayn Dzak locality, famously known as the Flaming Cliffs. Dinosaur, mammal, and other reptile remains are among the fossils that have been recovered from the formation. Excavation history The Djadochta Formation was first documented and explored—though only a single locality—during paleontological expeditions of the American Museum of Natural History in 1922–1925, which were part of the Central Asiatic Expeditions. The expeditions were led by Roy Chapman Andrews, in company of Walter Willis Granger as chief paleontologist and field team. The team did extensive exploration at the Bayn Dzak (formerly Shabarakh Usu) region, which they nicknamed Flaming Cliffs given that at sunset th ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Late Cretaceous
The Late Cretaceous (100.5–66 Ma) is the younger of two epochs into which the Cretaceous Period is divided in the geologic time scale. Rock strata from this epoch form the Upper Cretaceous Series. The Cretaceous is named after ''creta'', the Latin word for the white limestone known as chalk. The chalk of northern France and the white cliffs of south-eastern England date from the Cretaceous Period. Climate During the Late Cretaceous, the climate was warmer than present, although throughout the period a cooling trend is evident. The tropics became restricted to equatorial regions and northern latitudes experienced markedly more seasonal climatic conditions. Geography Due to plate tectonics, the Americas were gradually moving westward, causing the Atlantic Ocean to expand. The Western Interior Seaway divided North America into eastern and western halves; Appalachia and Laramidia. India maintained a northward course towards Asia. In the Southern Hemisphere, Australia and Ant ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
1984 In Paleontology ...
Plants Angiosperms Arthropods Arachnids Newly named crustaceans Conodont paleozoology Willi Ziegler and Charles A. Sandberg described the conodont genus '' Alternognathus''. Archosauromorphs Newly named archosauromorphs Newly named dinosaurs Data courtesy of George Olshevsky's dinosaur genera list. Newly named birds Pterosaurs References {{portal, Paleontology Paleontology Paleontology (), also spelled palaeontology or palæontology, is the scientific study of life that existed prior to, and sometimes including, the start of the Holocene epoch (roughly 11,700 years before present). It includes the study of fossi ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Agama (lizard)
''Agama'' (from Sranan Tongo meaning "lizard") is a genus of small-to-moderate-sized, long-tailed, insectivorous Old World lizards. The genus ''Agama'' includes at least 37 species in Africa, especially sub-Saharan Africa, where most regions are home to at least one species. Eurasian agamids are largely assigned to genus ''Laudakia''. The various species differ in size, ranging from about in length, when fully grown. Their colour also differs between species, between genders, and according to mood; for example, a dominant male in display mode is far brighter than when it has been caught, beaten by another male, or otherwise alarmed. Females tend to be less colourful than the males of the species. According to species, agamas live in forest, in bush, among rocks and on crags, but where their habitat has been cleared, or simply occupied by humans, some species also adapt to life in villages and compounds, for example inside the thatch of huts and other sheltering crevices. ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Latin
Latin (, or , ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally a dialect spoken in the lower Tiber area (then known as Latium) around present-day Rome, but through the power of the Roman Republic it became the dominant language in the Italian region and subsequently throughout the Roman Empire. Even after the fall of Western Rome, Latin remained the common language of international communication, science, scholarship and academia in Europe until well into the 18th century, when other regional vernaculars (including its own descendants, the Romance languages) supplanted it in common academic and political usage, and it eventually became a dead language in the modern linguistic definition. Latin is a highly inflected language, with three distinct genders (masculine, feminine, and neuter), six or seven noun cases (nominative, accusative, genitive, dative, ablative, and vocative), five declensions, four verb conjuga ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Genus
Genus ( plural genera ) is a taxonomic rank used in the biological classification of extant taxon, living and fossil organisms as well as Virus classification#ICTV classification, viruses. In the hierarchy of biological classification, genus comes above species and below family (taxonomy), family. In binomial nomenclature, the genus name forms the first part of the binomial species name for each species within the genus. :E.g. ''Panthera leo'' (lion) and ''Panthera onca'' (jaguar) are two species within the genus ''Panthera''. ''Panthera'' is a genus within the family Felidae. The composition of a genus is determined by taxonomy (biology), taxonomists. The standards for genus classification are not strictly codified, so different authorities often produce different classifications for genera. There are some general practices used, however, including the idea that a newly defined genus should fulfill these three criteria to be descriptively useful: # monophyly – all descendants ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Lizard
Lizards are a widespread group of squamate reptiles, with over 7,000 species, ranging across all continents except Antarctica, as well as most oceanic island chains. The group is paraphyletic since it excludes the snakes and Amphisbaenia although some lizards are more closely related to these two excluded groups than they are to other lizards. Lizards range in size from chameleons and geckos a few centimeters long to the 3-meter-long Komodo dragon. Most lizards are quadrupedal, running with a strong side-to-side motion. Some lineages (known as "legless lizards"), have secondarily lost their legs, and have long snake-like bodies. Some such as the forest-dwelling ''Draco'' lizards are able to glide. They are often territorial, the males fighting off other males and signalling, often with bright colours, to attract mates and to intimidate rivals. Lizards are mainly carnivorous, often being sit-and-wait predators; many smaller species eat insects, while the Komodo eats mammals a ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Subfamily
In biological classification, a subfamily (Latin: ', plural ') is an auxiliary (intermediate) taxonomic rank, next below family but more inclusive than genus. Standard nomenclature rules end subfamily botanical names with "-oideae", and zoological names with "-inae". See also * International Code of Nomenclature for algae, fungi, and plants * International Code of Zoological Nomenclature * Rank (botany) * Rank (zoology) In biological classification, taxonomic rank is the relative level of a group of organisms (a taxon) in an ancestral or hereditary hierarchy. A common system consists of species, genus, family, order, class, phylum, kingdom, domain. While ... Sources {{biology-stub ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Barun Goyot Formation
The Barun Goyot Formation (also known as Baruungoyot Formation or West Goyot Formation) is a geological formation dating to the Late Cretaceous Period. It is located within and is widely represented in the Gobi Desert Basin, in the Ömnögovi Province of Mongolia. Description It was previously known as the Lower Nemegt Beds occurring beneath the Nemegt Formation and above the Djadokhta Formation. It has been suggested that the Djadokhta and Barun Goyot Formations are lower and upper parts, respectively, of the same lithological unit and the boundary between the two does not exist. The stratotype of the Barun Goyot Formation is the Khulsan locality, east of Nemegt. At Nemegt, only the uppermost barungoyotian beds are visible. The ''Red Beds of Khermeen Tsav'' are also considered part of the Barun Goyot Formation. It is approximately in thickness,Gradzinski, R.; & Jerzykiewicz, T. (1974). Sedimentation of the Barun Goyot formation. Palaeontologica Polonica, 30, 111-146. and was l ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Mimeosaurus
''Mimeosaurus'' is an extinct genus of iguanian lizard from the Late Cretaceous of Mongolia. It is part of an extinct family of iguanians called Priscagamidae, and was the first priscagamid to have been described, having been named by American paleontologist Charles W. Gilmore in 1943. Currently only one species, the type species ''Mimeosaurus crassus'', belongs within the genus. A second species, ''M. tugrikinensis'', was named in 1989, but later studies argued that the specimens on which the new name is based are not sufficiently different from ''M. crassus'' specimens to warrant being classified as a separate species. ''Mimeosaurus'' is unique among iguanians in having premaxilla bones at the tip of the snout that are reduced in size, as well as having two pairs of enlarged canine-like teeth in the maxilla The maxilla (plural: ''maxillae'' ) in vertebrates is the upper fixed (not fixed in Neopterygii) bone of the jaw formed from the fusion of two maxillary bones. In human ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
